A jury was told that a headteacher took a primary schoolgirl into his study, told her she was the "prettiest girl in the school" and showered her with gifts.

Christopher Field then sexually assaulted her and plied her with more items he took from the lost property department.

The 47-year-old is accused of a string of child sex offences on two young girls in his care when he was headteacher at Woodcote Primary School in South Oxfordshire.

The jurors heard how one of the girls said she thought of her headmaster as her boyfriend.

He "would say she was special and the prettiest girl in the school", prosecutors said, while he groped her.

Field denies three counts of sexual assault on a child under 13 years, one count of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and one count of making indecent photographs of a child.

The teacher, of Green Lane, Chieveley, near Newbury, previously worked at Goring Church of England Primary School near Reading, and took up the role of headteacher at Kennet Valley Primary School in Calcot after leaving Woodcote.

Rebecca Austin, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said: "Christopher Field was the headmaster. [The girl] tells the police that she loved school until Mr Field began to work there."

"The question you will ask is how on earth this could happen in a primary school?"

Ms Austin said that hugs in the playground soon progressed to private meetings in Field's office during break times, with him asking her: "Are you coming for a cuddle at lunchtime?"

"The question you will ask is how on earth this could happen in a primary school?"

The young girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told officers that going to secondary school and learning more about sex had made her realise what had happened was "wrong."

During the police investigation, officers discovered a previous allegation made against Field, when another schoolgirl claimed he had rubbed her thighs in the dining hall.

Ms Austin said: "Her mother will tell you she really didn't know what to do because the person in charge of safeguarding at the school was Christopher Field, the headmaster."

He was spoken to by governors but it was believed to be a misunderstanding and wasn't reported to police. However Field was later charged with this offence, as well as making 13 indecent moving images which were found in the recycling bin of his family's computer.

Prosecutors believe Field downloaded and later deleted the child pornography but he claimed he had been in school at the time and pointed the finger at his two sons.

Field was first arrested on suspicion of the sex offences in September 2014 and was charged in May. He denied any sexual touching and said children would sometimes "initiate contact" and rather than "stand there like a board" he would hug back.

Giving evidence via a live link from another room in the court building, one of Field's alleged victims said : "He said 'can I have a kiss?' It was really awkward.

"That was the first time that it made me feel uncomfortable because before I didn't really think anything of it. But that day I just felt really strange.